Mr. Canwell is out of town on a cattle drive right now
but we expect him home soon so please do come back again!
"Some lonely grave and an excavation which was once a cellar in the pasture on the east side of Lovejoy Pond mark the place where John Canwell's two wives are buried and the site of his house. He was an Englishman and carried on the business of a drover In partnership with Robert Cornforth of Readfield Also an Englishman Mr. Canwell was known to handle large sums of money at times. In the month of March 1810 Canwell left home with a drove of cattle, his destination being Portland. He never returned. His horse overcoat and spurs were brought back by a man who stated that Mr. Canwell would return in ten days. Nothing was ever known for certain concerning such a tragic occurrence and excited much wonder that an investigation was never made. It is well to remember that In those early unsettled times the detection and punishment of criminal deeds was not as easy as today. Mr Canwell was twice married and had five children. His name still clings to the grassy hill side which was his home and is known today as the "Canwell pasture". (1)
I find where Canwell m.1783 to Sarah (Davis) in Boston but find nothing on a second wife as noted in the above excerpt from the History of Wayne. His wife is thought to have died about the same time John disappeared. Most of his children moved to Oxford County except daughters Sarah (1784-1868) and Nancy (1787-1831). Nancy m.1808 to John Crane of Fayette and remained in the area. Sarah (1784-1868), married William Stanchfield of Leeds and moved there. The Stanchfield family was adventurous.
Sarah (Canwell) and her husband William Stanchfield first lived in Leeds and then in Milo, ME until about 1855 when they migrated west to Hennepin County, Minnesota at an advanced age, to join four of their five sons. Their eldest son, George, had settled in Nora, Illinois. Their youngest, Daniel, was the first to go west to Minnesota in 1847 where he became a pioneer lumberman. In his later years Daniel wrote of this migration, which included the following passage: " I stood on the east bank of the Mississippi River, with two half breeds, Bottineau and Manock, looking at a bark canoe that was to carry the supplies for an exploring voyage to find pine somewhere along the river... I was the only white man above Fort Snelling and these two half breeds my only companions, uncivilized strangers. With them i was to explore a country belonging to a warlike tribe of Indians, to investigate as to its timber wealth and its navigable rivers. This I did, returned and made my report. Then the improvements began..." In a lengthy narrative Daniel Stanchfield gave a rather detailed account of his life beginning when still a boy in Maine, his movement west before his exploration occurred, and the logging and lumbering activity that followed. (4)
These children of John Canwell moved to and remained in Oxford County, ME: Hannah (1793-1849); John (1794-1892); Oliver Billings (1805-1847); George (1807-1899). Some sources on ancestry.com give two other daughters, Abigail "Nabby" (1783-?) and Submit (1799-?), but I find nothing to confirm that.
Canwell's pasture was located on the east shore of Lovejoy Pond. The land eventually fell into ownership of Benjamin Palmer of Readfield then was owned by William Hunton who sold it to Ellsworth Crosby of North Wayne in 1904. Crosby built sporting camps at this location soon after which was bought by the Nelson twins, Robert and Harold, of New Jersey in 1946 and renamed Tall Timbers.(3) The cabins are individually owned today. (2)
1. History of Town of Wayne, ME by George Walton; pg.178
2. Kennebec Country Registry of Deeds; various;
3. The Evolution of Summer Resorts and Kids Camps on Four Lakes in Central Maine by Dale Potter-Clark and Charles L. Day, pub.2016.
4. Stanchfield, David; History of Pioneer Lumbering on the Upper Mississippi and its Tributaries; 50 pgs.; Minnesota Historical Society 1901; accessed 4.11.2021
Those are my ancestors
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